Patricia Van Lubeck
Tilia arbora, 2004, oil on canvas, 120×80 cm.
Physalis pecus, 2010, oil on canvas, 120×80 cm.
Malus arvum, 2007, oil on canvas, 120×80 cm.
Tilia ora, 2006, oil on canvas, 120×80 cm.
Fargesia victualia, 2008, oil on canvas, 180×120 cm.
Populus flucta, 2006, oil on canvas, 120×80 cm.
Simmondsia vitra, 2008, oil on canvas, 120×80 cm.
Agaricia bullio, 2005, oil on canvas, 120 x 80 cm.
Artist Bio
Patricia van Lubeck is a self-taught artist. Born in Amsterdam in 1965, she was a bookeeper until 2000 when she started the 21st century by becoming a fulltime professional artist. She moved to the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand in 2005 and since then her work has taken a new and exciting direction. Her works in recent years show landscapes and weird plant species which she calls her psychedelic gardens.
About the Artist
Although Patricia Van Lubeck’s style is often regarded as surreal, or neo-surreal, her work does not strictly fall in that category. Her paintings are apparently simple in composition but executed in amazing detail and visually very dynamic, with realistic elements and above all an alienating atmosphere.
Van Lubeck seeks to achieve a high level of craftsmanship. It may take her as many as eight hours just to prepare the surface on some canvases, then she oils up to ten layers to achieve rich colors and a smooth finish. Due to her time-consuming technique, Patricia Van Lubeck is only able to create about ten paintings a year.
Artist Statement
The absence of formal tertiary artistic education has allowed me to develop my own unique style. You could describe my depictions as possible in theory, but improbable in reality. Most of my subjects fall between the “probable” and the “unlikely”.
I consider my work to be an exploration of the ways we experience our environment. My inspiration comes from the ordinary things around me, the artist in me sees things in an unusual perspective. Picture a baker looking at a corn field – he sees bread, cookies and pies. I see shapes, patterns and colors. I like to zoom in on an everyday object such as the pins of a hair brush and imagine a tiny landscape with rows of hairy trees.
Time is a very important factor in the creation of my work. I usually work on three or four pieces at the same time. Subsequently each work takes a couple of months from start to finish.
I am always trying to achieve high contrast within an unlimited color range. I love working with geometric patterns. Before I started painting on canvas, my cars had always been willing victims to this passion. Therefore patterns, natural or artificial, form the foundation of a lot of my images.
Posted by Carmelita Caruana
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